tecpantli (T1871:1)

tecpantli (T1871:1)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This notation that is also a simplex glyph stands for twenty (tecpantli) or (cempohualli). It shows a red flag. It is part of a measurement of an agricultural parcel. The flag is on a post, with the fabric or paper flying to the viewer's right.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The more abbreviated term pantli can refer to an agricultural furrow, and furrows were counted and expressed almost as a type of measurement for an agricultural parcel. Flags representing a count of twenty or a group of furrows were possibly originally perfect rectangles in shape, but this one may show some European influence, with the curve indenting the right margin--almost a burgee or guidon in the Western tradition, yet still retaining something of the vertical pre-Columbian banner shape. Some flag shapes and their names can be found here.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

AGN Tierras 1871, exp. 1

Date of Manuscript:

1558

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Cuauhtla, Morelos

Semantic Categories:

numbers

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Agriculture, Gardens, Stock Raising

Measurements, Quantities

Numbers, Math

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives:

vertical, upright

Keywords:

numbers, números, banderas, flags, twenty, 20, veinte, cempohualli

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tecpan(tli), twenty, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecpantli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

veinte

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Single-page codex, Archivo General de la Nación, México, Ramo de Tierras, vol. 1871, exp. 1, fol. 28r.

Image Source, Rights:

The Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), México, holds the original manuscript. This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the AGN and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.